Saturday, May 04, 2013

Founder Barry Hogan’s desire to preserve the festival’s authenticity – by calling a halt to it before it has a chance to stale or mutate into another commercial-driven affair – is manifested in his unusual choice of headliner for the final weekend: eighties alt-rock band Loop, who are temporarily reforming for the event.

The Quietus, though, suggests it might have been a slightly more hard-nosed business decision:

Somewhat melancholy news reaches the Quietus offices this morning in the form of an email informing us that long-running festival hosts All Tomorrow's Parties are "calling time" on the holiday camp editions of the festival. The aim, they say, is to "allow ATP to focus on their growing schedule of city and international based events in 2014 and beyond."

[Promoter Vince] Power said: "We have worked very hard to try to make it work but it has proved too much a of mountain to climb and despite fighting hard, circumstances are such that based on poor ticket sales and the forecast selling rate substantial losses would be made.

"It is a surprise for us that after eight weeks of heavy marketing and with such a great bill that we have to cancel, though we are convinced this does not reflect on the artists, it highlights the poor economic climate."

Mr. Hanneman wrote about serial killers and terrorists, rapists and dead women. The release of the band’s albums was sometimes delayed by record labels’ concern about graphic lyrics and cover art.

Mr. Hanneman wrote perhaps the band’s best-known song, “Angel of Death,” from Slayer’s breakthrough 1986 album, “Reign in Blood,” produced by Rick Rubin. The song describes torturous experimental surgeries performed by the Nazi physician Joseph Mengele at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. Some critics have accused the band members of being Nazis and racists; Mr. Hanneman said Slayer was simply interested in history and evil.

The LA Times made Hanneman fight for space with John Williamson. (Interesting to note that Williamson's clothing-and-sex-optional 1970s resort probably generated more genuine moral panic than Slayer ever managed, despite trying harder.) But as the LA Times obituary stressed, boy, did Slayer want to shock:

"We write the songs that we do because that's what we like," Hanneman told Hilburn. "But they are just stories — not things we actually do or recommend anyone else go out and do. Take the song 'Piece by Piece,' about chopping up somebody. To us, it's like a horror movie. It's fun because [the songs and movies] shock you. The kids get into it on the same level we do. They know it is just a story and just fun."

Fans took to social media to declare “#HellAwaits“ — referring to the band’s 1985 album “Hell Awaits” — in 140-character eulogies that somehow managed to feel warmhearted. On the excellent metal blog Bazillion Points, Hanneman was fondly remembered as “grumpy, withdrawn, and antisocial,” a guy who once spent 30 delighted minutes “watching people trip over a sidewalk pothole on the streets of Manhattan.”

These aren’t the usual warm fuzzies that come pouring out when we lose a trailblazing artist, but the disorienting nature of the discussion feels true to Slayer’s gift for scrambling our senses. Hanneman’s band will most likely be remembered for its sensational lyrics about violence, mortality and the blood encrusted pits of h-e-double-hockey-sticks, but the true legacy of Slayer’s frenetic music is its ability to approximate the confusion of danger — that blurry, breathtaking space between life and death.

Classic Rock magazine dug into its archive to report on the spider bite which, ultimately, would be responsible for Hanneman's death:

In 2011 Hanneman told Classic Rock how he was bitten by a spider in his hot tub. “I didn’t even feel it – but an hour later I knew I was ill. I could see the flesh corrupting. I got to the emergency room and thank God the nurse knew straight away what it was.

“At that point I was an hour away from death. Unbelievably the doctor was a Slayer fan. He said: ‘First I am going to save your life. Then I am going to save your arm. Then I am going to save your career.’”

He underwent a series of skin grafts and had continued to receive physiotherapy.

Just as a sidenote, with so much competition for attention for the metal fan, it's surprising that both Kerrang and Metal Hammer's websites did little beyond a quick round-up of posts from Twitter and a short obituary. It's as if you'd gone to the Spectator site after Thatcher died and just got a brief newsline written by an intern.

He said: “If we’re barking up the wrong tree with this record, I don’t know if I can be ar*ed with barking up it again.

“I’ll never be a plumber, I’ll never be a fashion designer.

“Maybe I’d just sail off into the distance and enjoy my life, instead of worrying about what some spotty little t*** from Hastings thinks about the record.”

Oh, people's poet, don't die.

Happily for Liam, there's no actual description of what success would look like, and there's enough middle-aged Oasis fans who will be delighted with another chunk of more of the same to count BE as a glorious success.

And even if you look to sales, with Different Gear, Still Speeding, Do You See The Subtle DRUG References only managing to scrape to 140,000 copies in two years, even a mild retail success could be seen as a marvellous result.

Much as I'd love to see Liam exit, pursued by spoty youths from Hastings, I fear these words will merely be forgotten as he grimly ploughs on to the difficult third album.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

"How has Peter Andre out of ITV2's Peter Andre Walks Around A Bit reacted to the news that JLS are splitting?"

That's the question that keeps me awake at night, and I'm sure you've felt it too. Police estimate that seventy-four per cent of road accidents this last week have been caused by drowsy drivers, who had spent the night awake wondering.

Writing in his new! magazine column, he said: ''I'm sad that JLS have split up, but I can understand why they wanted to go out on a high.

You have a connection with the boys, don't you, Pete?

''I'm good mates with all the lads from JLS and want to wish them the best of luck. Marvin Humes even invited me to his and Rochelle's wedding last year, but I couldn't go. I was gutted!''

That wasn't the one I was thinking of.

Peter added: ''Oritse Williams is now being managed by Claire Powell, who manages me, and I know she's got lots of exciting stuff lined up for him. Being under the same management means we'll probably get to hang out lots, which I'm looking forward to.''

I'm sure you'll be hanging out loads and loads. Although, frankly, Claire's thinking of buying a tumble drier, so it's more likely you'll be putting Ortise's laundry into a machine. But still, exciting times, eh?

Leigh-Anne: A lot of girls tell us we’re their inspiration and role models and that is just from us being ourselves.

I think parents see us as their kids’ role models as well because of the inspirational lyrics that we write. Maybe that’s part of it — they love Change Your Life out there because of the message it has. We’ve had parents come up and thank us for giving their children someone to look up to. That’s an amazing feeling.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Punk Rock Princesses: A Case For Something Corporate by Devon Maloney
Dangerously In Love: My Decade With Beyonce by Jamieson Cox
Repeat Offenders: Pressing Play, Over And Over Again by Harley Brown
Guiltless Pleasures: Imagining A Post-Snob World by David Greenwald, Simon Vozick-Levinson and Lindsay Zoladz
Miss You Like Crazy: Canada’s Lost Boy Bands by Melody Lau
He Ain’t Even Know It: On Rick Ross, Rap And Responsibility by Henry Adaso
I Don’t Want To Come Back Down From This (Sound)Cloud by Taleen Kalenderian
Why Bother? Talking To Myself About Weezer by Jillian Mapes

It's Three-NinetyNine American, which at current exchange rates is about two fifty in GBP or 198 in Kyrgyzstani Som; pdf only.

A source close to both camps said: “It’s all gone a bit sour recently with Liam and The Roses. There was an ugly incident in Dubai when Liam said a few things that were totally out of order. It didn’t go down well at all.

“Ian, John and Reni are all low-profile lads and don’t subscribe to aggro of any sort.

“They were also getting a little bit p***ed off with him ballooning on the side of the stage every time they played a gig. He had to be escorted off at one show and put behind the mixing desk because he was making such a scene.

“He was then slung out of there for spilling beer on the desk.

“He was generally being a bit of a nob — and The Roses can’t be ar*ed with the panto-mime.”

Just while that sinks in, what sort of person censors "pissed" by taking out three letters but "arsed" by just removing the "s"? What's the point of just taking the "s" out of there anywhere?

The idea of Ian, John and Reni "not subscribing to aggro of any sort" is an interesting one. Not sure how far that flight attendant who was told she was going to have her hands chopped off, or Paul Birch, for that matter.

Still, you've got to feel sorry for the band. Liam's already killed off one Manchester heritage cash-cow; surely he won't bring the Roses down as well?

Tragically, Ministry's final creative hour with [Mike] Scaccia came right before they broke for the holidays. Three days after leaving the Ministry sessions in El Paso, in the early hours of December 23, Scaccia suffered heart failure onstage while performing with his other band, Rigor Mortis, and was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Scaccia’s death both devastated and motivated Jourgensen.

“Mikey was my best friend in the world and there’s no Ministry without him,” he says. “But I know the music we recorded together during the last weeks of his life had to be released to honor him. So after his funeral, I locked myself in my studio and turned the songs we had recorded into the best and last Ministry record anyone will ever here. I can’t do it without Mikey and I don’t want to. So yes, this will be Ministry’s last album.”

The last album is titled From Beer To Eternity, which is a pun which would, frankly, embarrass a late-period episode of Only Fools And Horses.